The free MTS mTicket app can be downloaded to iPhones via iTunes or to Android phones via Google Play.

For now, the agency is limiting the app to trolley rides for football games played at Qualcomm Stadium, including all Chargers and Aztecs home games and the Poinsettia and Holiday bowls.

MTS contracted with Masabi, which has offices in New York and London, to create the app.

Josh Robin, vice president of strategy and development for Masabi in North America, said the MTS app was ready in just two weeks after contracts were signed because the company tapped technology already in use in other cities.

Schupp said Masabi provided its cloud-computing-based app JustRide at no cost to MTS, but does earn 7 percent commission on ticket sales made through the technology.

The new app has a function for buying tickets, a trolley map that shows all stops and a trip planner.

Schupp said it could reduce costs for the agency, which has to hire extra staffing for special events, and for many people who take the trolley only on game days.

Most regular riders already have a Compass card, which MTS sells for $2 and is reloaded with credits whenever a new fare is purchased. A first-time rider taking the trolley to Qualcomm Stadium on a game day usually has to buy a new card on top of paying the $5 fare, bringing the total for the day to $7.

People with the new app pay $5.50 for a fare but don’t need a Compass card, meaning they will pay $1.50 less than those first-time riders, Schupp said.

The app also can make buying tickets a smoother experience, Robin said. “There’s nothing more frustrating than getting there and you’re waiting for the person in front of you to pay their fare,” he said. “Every person buying a ticket on their phone is one less person in line.”

Schupp said MTS could save money with the app because operating trolleys on game day requires additional costs. Besides having more staffers in the ticketing booths, MTS must hire more security because of the large amount of cash changing hands on those busy days, he said.

“It becomes a very labor-intensive job for us,” Schupp said about game days.

The app made its debut at the SDSU game Saturday, and Schupp said students gave it positive reviews.

Once a fare is bought, a bar code can be scanned from the phone’s face as riders walk through the turnstile at the stadium. Fares must be used within a certain time, and a countdown clock that changes colors on the app tells the rider when the virtual ticket expires.

Schupp said MTS will expand the app program slowly as it works through issues such as how the system can be used for bus fares.